How strong do you play Ace Rag?

[AaronBrown]

You are correct about the dangers of A-small, but it has two big advantages as well. First, it's a stronger than average hand. It will often win if the hand is played to showdown, and it wins very frequently short-handed.

Second is that it has a good chance against any hand except A with a higher kicker. That's important, especially in no limit. You lose most of your money with hands that have 30% pot equity or less, you can stand to play some 40% and 45%. The key is always having a decent shot at the pot when the bets get big. AA kills you, but it kills everything. AK kills you, but AK won't be confident about winning unless an A or K shows up on the board. You know to beware of a hand that gets excited when an A or K shows up. On most boards, the hands that dominate you won't be confident.

I'm not saying to play it, I think A-small loses more money for average players than any other hand. But it can be played properly, and in the right circumstances is an excellent hand.

Axs is good for 4betting light 3bettors [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

A5s has about 30% winning pct. against TT+,AK

[Gonso]

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The key is always having a decent shot at the pot when the bets get big. AA kills you, but it kills everything. AK kills you, but AK won't be confident about winning unless an A or K shows up on the board

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This is where it gets tough though, opponents are going to get wise to A-weak being a part of your range if it consistently is, and in turn they will be less likely to get away from hands like AK when they make TPTK hands against you. Essentially, it's worse than then you started. Now you're not only dominated and out of position, now you've lost a lot of fold equity.

I also don't think A-weak is ever really an excellent hand, though as I mentioned there are certainly a lot of circumstances where it's easily playable. Heads up obviously it does have considerably more value, the same with jam/fold situations. Obviously in SNG and tourney situations where you're short, an ace is a pretty powerful card.

That said, in normal 100BB cash games, making a habit of flat calling raises with Ax or even defending from the blinds is a mistake in most situations for a lot of players (in the second case in particular, I think there are a lot of other hands much better for this purpose). It's just not a big pot hand, excepting flush situations or freak monsters.

I've always visualized Ax hands kind of like a spear. A good offense-only hand that I'll take a quick jab or two with, but not really my weapon of choice when you get into a long, drawn out battle for a big pot. Open raising from the cutoff is fine, 3-betting a light raiser with position.

Calling with Ax preflop doesn't ever seem like a good idea, unless it's suited and you think you have IO to limp for flush value. Otherwise it doesn't lend itself well to passive play.

IMO of course

[indianaV8]

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Webmaster of Absolutepoker4u

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Spammers get better and better? ;-)

[onesandzeros]

Re: OP, "How strong do you play Ace Rag?"

Depends on my stack.

[br.bm]

calling a raise out of position with Ax

[PantsOnFire]

Let's assume we are talking early in the tourney when short stacking is not an issue.

The way two players play Arag can separate a winner from a loser. The winner folds Arag and the loser calls raises with it.

Having said that, I do play Arag (late position) when I am against certain opponents, like passive players who generally don't raise. Usually, I play in a limped pot, not a raised one. I also like Arag suited since it can make the nuts. And it can easily flop a 12-outer. Again, it helps if you are against opponents who will stack off easily and who don't go nuts betting the flop and turn.

I actually like pairing my kicker first. If there is not much action and a dry board, and then an A hits these weaker opponents will think they have the nuts with AT, AJ, etc.

The real trouble is flopping an A. This is where you need to read how the action is going down. Keeping the pot small (remember we have position) is a really good idea. Just the other day I called a min-bet on the flop and turn with A5s on a A 9 2 board and won a small pot when villain flipped over TT (yes he limped early with TT).

Also keep in mind that these guys who call raises with Arag are the same guys who will raise with KJ so they are actually making the right call (against their own kind).

[Gonso]

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Having said that, I do play Arag (late position) when I am against certain opponents, like passive players who generally don't raise. Usually, I play in a limped pot, not a raised one. I also like Arag suited since it can make the nuts. And it can easily flop a 12-outer. Again, it helps if you are against opponents who will stack off easily and who don't go nuts betting the flop and turn.

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I like this here, also against players who easily fold to c-bets